GILLINGHAM are eyeing a top six place and a clean sheet as they look to bounce back from their shock exit in the League Cup against Queens Park Rangers tonight.

Two consecutive defeats have left the supporters asking questions and the team will be hoping to answer any doubters in front of the live Sky television cameras.

Player-manager Andy Hessenthaler said: “We need a massive response, not just for ourselves but the fans obviously expect that as well.

“We need to bounce back, and normally the good teams do. I’m pleased the game has come around so quickly as we have to get that other one out of our minds and get a result, because if we can get a result, then we are back up into the top six again.

“We said at the start of the season we wanted to be hard to play against and we’ve done that in the two home league games but we’ve still conceded. It would be nice to keep a clean sheet.”

The midweek 2-1 defeat against Northampton saw seven changes from the previous match and Hessenthaler is ready to change it around again after a poor display.

He said: “I will be making changes. Our performance on Tuesday doesn’t make it that difficult for me to pick the team. It’s a bit of a challenge for the players now because of the knock we had in midweek and the last league game we had a Stoke and we need to recover from that.”

Darren Byfield should return having spent the week out due to illness while John Hills should also be back as could Nyron Nosworthy after recovering from his groin injury.

Definite absentees will be Nicky Southall, who has had a scan on a groin problem which will keep him out for the next two or three weeks, and Tommy Johnson who took a knock in training which put him out for at least a month.

Few players did themselves any favours in the week but Hessenthaler did have time to praise a couple of players.

He said: “I thought Matt Jarvis was one of the better ones as he came in and showed a lot of confidence for a young kid.

“He made things happen and the goal. The keeper (Jason Brown) hasn’t had that much to do but he didn't do a lot wrong.”

Hessenthaler pulled no punches in his assessment of the performance against Northampton.

He added: “I won’t put up with that. For the first half there was no work ethic, no passion, no desire.

“I’m not having a season like last year. And if players don’t want to play for me then they can go elsewhere.”

Hessenthaler also spoke to KM-fm about his thoughts ahead of tonight's match...